Pennsylvania

CARLISLE, 

Pennsylvania

CUMBERLAND COUNTY

The Old Cumberland County prison is a historical landmark in the downtown area.  The prison has a history of daring escape attempts.   This was an operating prison from 1854-1984 and is now used for county offices, so there are no tours or public access.

In November 2014, the crew of the television show "Ghost Hunters" was drawn to the old prison.   Rumors claim that the prisoner that was hung in 1894 for murdering a policeman is seen wandering around the prison.






The Old Cumberland County Courthouse was rebuilt in 1846 following a massive fire and is still in use today.  

July 1, 1863, the Confederate Army demanded that the Union surrender.   Under orders from General Robert E. Lee, the Confederates shelled the town and one of the columns at the courthouse bears the mark of the artillery barrage.   Following that attack, the Confederate unit was sent to Gettysburg.




You can literally see the bullet holes in the columns from the Civil War, today.

TODAY, INSIDE THE COURT HOUSE

The courthouse was also associated in the years before the Civil War with some of the nation's most important Underground Railroad  episodes.   Not an actual railroad but a series of complex secret routes, churches, institutions and homes that aided runaway slaves on their journey north.

Pennsylvania was the first free state north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Daniel Kaufman faced trial for helping runaways and later paid one of the largest fines ever assessed for violating fugitive slave laws.  

LETORT PARK, 
downtown Carlisle

LeTort Park is a jewel in the middle of downtown Carlisle.   This twelve acre parcel of land was donated by a couple in 1943 (Samuel Hertzler and his wife) with the stipulation that should the Kiwanis Club cease to operate the land, it would go back to the family or the City and continue to operate as a town playground.

Pickleball courts constructed next to the tennis courts.   Friends Diane and Barb take on the guys.

Apres pickleball, we are treated to a great seafood and steak dinner. (Minus seafood for one of us that is allergic)!   Thank you for the great times.


PINE GROVE FURNACE STATE PARK

My go-to Park to take Tazz for long walks in the forest.   I was in the middle of reading a book about the Appalachian Trail, which at the time, was discussing this very spot!

The reason for this name for the park is, in 1764 an iron furnace was built along the creek and it was named Pine Grove Iron Works.  It manufactured ten plate stoves, fireplace backs, iron kettles and possibly munitions.  Later, in the 1830s Laurel Forge was built, an expansion of the Iron Works.  Wrought iron was produced.




In 1913, the 17,000-acre Pine Grove Ironworks was sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is now a popular hiking, biking, fishing, and swimming recreational area as part of the new Forest Reserve System.

This is the very grocery store that 'my hikers (in the book)' stopped by and enjoyed white bread, pop, ice cream, burgers and stock piled ramen noodles for the next leg of their journey.

The Appalachian Trail
is a 2,184 mile long, marked hiking trail that began about 1921 and was completed in 1937.  The longest hiking-only trail in the world.   It extends from Springer Mountain in Georgia and extends to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

Most people attempt to hike the trail in its entirety in a single season which takes five to seven months.  The fastest known times to complete the entire trail was under 50 days.   Overall, 20% of people who set out to to the entire hike will finish.   You will climb a total of 515,000 feet - equivalent to climbing the summit of Mt. Everest more than 17 times!

This 'trail' is not like the actual hiking trail; this is a portion that comes out at the lake and the museum for locals and tourists to enjoy.    The Pennsylvania portion of the actual trip is reported to be very rough, with alot of rock and shale.

In the museum, are incredible stories of people completing the mission and those that started the mission of building this amazing network of trails.  


 I focus on this woman, Grandma Gatewood  



In 1955- a great-grandmother at age 67, headed north in Georgia, wearing high-topped sneakers and carrying a denim satchel over her shoulder.  

None of her family (she had eleven children), knew what she was up to until nearly a third of the Trail was behind her.  Her youngest daughter received a postcard explaining her travels.

She went through seven pairs of shoes, carried a sack of about 20 pounds and had an old shower curtain for shelter, a gingham dress for town, a little food and some other items.   Due to her life on farms along the Ohio River, the could handle most medical emergencies, cook and knew about flora and fauna.



She appeared on national television, making her the first woman that completed the trail in 1955 and again in 1957 and she also hiked sections by 1964.

I spot a praying mantis eating a grasshopper

A fascinating, 'alien-like' insect.    They can turn their heads 180 degrees.   They have to large eyes and three other eyes located between the two compound eyes.   They use their front legs to snare their prey, the legs are equipped with spikes for snaring and pinning the prey.

They are extremely gifted at camouflage.   They can appear like leaves, sticks and branches. Some mantises molt at the end of a dry season to become black, camouflaging themselves with crush fires that leave a blacked landscape.

They do not just stop at eating insects.   They will target hummingbirds!  AND, warblers, sunbirds, flycatcher and other birds, frogs and lizards.   

But, they also are targeted.   Their predators include frogs and lizards, birds, spiders and bats.

A DAY TRIP TO GETTYSBURG

Farm en route along the country road, to Gettysburg

We stumbled across this fabulous fruit and vegetable market

Peters Orchards

A family owned and operated farm since 1870, along Route 94, in the heart of apple country, Northeastern Adams County with over 20,000 acres of orchards.

This sign shows the apples and when they are in season.   This orchard produces over 70 varieties of apples, harvested from early summer through early November.

Open all year, the market has various fruits, baked goods, preserves and winter squash.

GETTYSBURG

In the downtown square, a statue of Abraham Lincoln.   

The Wills House is a museum dedicated to the story of Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg address and the history of the Battle of Gettysburg.   

David Wills was an attorney who opened his doors after the Gettysburg battle to help the wounded and dying soldiers, received letters from families looking for loved ones and he began planning for a cemetery to honor the fallen.  

Lincoln stayed at this house the night before his famous Gettysburg Address speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, November 19,1863.

Home of Knob Hall Winery and Gettysburg Vape Shop

Thaddeus Stevens' House
this old timber house (in downtown Gettysburg today) was built in 1790.  He was a House of Representatives member and a fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African-Americans.  

This house is now restored with original wood floors, walls and beams and rented for $200 per night.   The Confederates occupied this street during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Statue of Major General Oliver Otis Howard

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

This monument is placed on Cemetery Hill, where day two of the three day battle took place.  


Fought in July 1863, the battle ended in a Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North.  His decimated army retreated to Virginia.

Over the three day battle, over 50,000 casualties occurred in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.   Union casualties totaled 3,155 and Confederates 3,903.  

An estimated 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or listed as missing the the Battle.    Nine generals were killed or mortally wounded.


MEMORIALS

The National Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 3,512 Union soldiers. 
Numerous monuments stand to commemorate the Union and Confederate troops who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.  

979 unknowns are buried here.   Because of so many casualties buried in the fields in shallow graves to prevent disease, not all were found.   Remains were still discovered, as was the case in 1996 by a tourist.   

Many of the Confederate remains have been relocated from the fields to Virginia, and other southern states, where they were interred in town cemeteries.



THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

January 1, 1863 was the year the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war.   President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Although this did not need slavery in the nation it announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators.  From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty.



LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

Is a city located in South Central Pennsylvania (population of approximately 60,000).    Lancaster is also known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country.  You will find Amish and Mennonite culture, farms and Pennsylvania Dutch foods.

The Pennsylvania rifle (or American long rifle) was created here in the 1730s by craftsmen from Germany and Switzerland.  


The architecture is fabulous

The colonial style Museum of Art building

The "Shippen House."    This building was originally owned in 1751-1781 by Edward Shippen (lawyer, judge, Chairman).   It is now the YMCA/YWCA.

In 1753 the first Saint James Episcopal Church was built.  Many prominent people (Generals and family members, Lawyers, Judges, Lieutenants) buried from the 1700s and later.

Some neighborhoods are not so inviting

This neighborhood is rough around the corner and students are just returning from a day in school;  the mask (that says TRASH) and the stare tell me to get lost!

SIGNAGE ON THE DOOR:

Posted No Trespassing

Keep out 

Do not sit or stand on steps

To all tenants - If you bring the rent, don't forget to bring the stamp and envelope.

Playing on the street - no where else to go

THE PLAIN PEOPLE

The Amish, Mennonites, the Brethren, and other "Plain People" of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.   The Amish and Mennonites are also known as the Plain people.

The Amish trace their heritage back hundreds of years and today, they still live and work much as their forefathers did.  They believe worldliness can keep them from being close to God, and can introduce influences that could be destructive to their communities and to their way of life.

Drove to several small communities around Lancaster and came across this town, where we saw several Amish.

Within Lancaster County, there are over 25 different Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren church groups, all with slightly different traditions and interpretations of the Bible.   The more traditional groups are called 'old-order Amish.'   They do not permit electricity or telephones.

Amish children attend one-room schoolhouses through the eighth grade.  Amish worship serves are held every other week in one of the members' homes.

This is a schoolhouse and the children ride scooters to school.

A tour buggy touring the Amish farms meets an 'authentic' Amish buggy

A typical farm with mules

Farming has been their preferred way of live and feel that is best maintained by a rural environment.   They do not allow the use of tractors in their fields, the old order will use modern equipment pulled by teams of horses or mules.

Amish men who don't farm typically end up working in construction or making "Amish furniture."

They are private people which is extremely difficult to maintain as they live amongst 'us' who are curious and disturbing.   They believe taking photographs where someone is recognizable is forbidden by the Biblical prohibition against making any 'graven image.'   

Well, unfortunate for them, my belief is to take photographs to have and behold memories.   (This young man didn't seem to mind us and waved).

We come  across a couple of families harvesting corn.

They have a strong devotion to family and community and a strong work ethic.   In today's world it is no wonder we are captivated by their lifestyle, hand working the land in order to survive and the long, arduous days they put in to work the land in order to survive, without the technological lives we exist in.

Down one side the cutting machine is pulled by three mules.   The wagon, also pulled by three mules, is loaded with corn as it flies off the conveyor belt.   One person mans the mules and the other directing the corn.

They round the corner and another empty wagon waits, gets loaded and then drives off.  One person takes the load back to the farm and the other, runs to meet up with the next empty wagon around the corner.

One family has to cross a busy road to unload their harvest in the barn.

We enjoyed our conversation with this 92 year old Amish man.   He had travelled to the Stoltzfus Meat Market, then over to Kauffman's Fruit Farm & market.  

Almost all the businesses have hitching posts.

And, I notice a modern mowing machine at one home

We thoroughly enjoyed our week in the Carlisle area.   

Western Village RV Park, Carlisle

Next stop will be Virginia.